[NTLUG:Discuss] Top Posting

[Chris Cox]

Robert Citek wrote:
> What I find amusing is that using Linux is allegedly about the freedom
> to choose and doing things sometimes a bit differently.  Yet, most
> linux mailing lists (and this one's no exception) get into huge flame
> wars and endless threads when people actually do choose to do things
> differently.  That is, if you chose to differ too much, expect
> ridicule until you conform to the group's way of being different. (cue
> Life of Brian)  The take home message: it's ok to do things
> differently as long you do things differently the same way as everyone
> else.

My take on this...

We have a lot of (relatively) new folks that do not know
anything about email/nntp style threaded discussion format.

With that said, those people will likely top post (just a guess)
because that's what most people do in the Microsoft owned
post Internet era (these folks are more likely to prefer
a "forum" over a "mail list").

So... with that said, I think we need to be careful to not
bash in the head of somebody who doesn't understand email/nntp
style etiquette.  Not saying we can't teach them, we just
need to try not to bash them.... there are many in the world
today that don't know what a mail list or usenet newsgroup
is.  Sad but true.

So avoid top posting... do include attributions.... dates
aren't as important as attribution indentation (just fyi).

Feel free to snip out parts that don't concern your
reply.  I just use ellipsis (...) but it's more appropriate
to say snip... where content is removed.

Freedom isn't the same thing as license... Freedom implies
responsibility, license (licentiousness) does not.

Oh... and I don't always follow proper etiquette rules
either... so I do recommend we loosen up a bit :)